How Palin's PAC spends its money

[meegbear]

Some Republicans -- if not the elected ones, then certainly plenty of the voters -- see former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the savior of their party. So far, though, she doesn't seem to be doing much on that score.

In the last half of 2009, Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, gave only $43,000 to Republican candidates for federal office. That money was spread over more than a dozen people.

By contrast, National Journal's Reid Wilson notes, SarahPAC spent almost $48,000 buying copies of Palin's memoir "Going Rogue." The books, purchased from the publisher, were used as thank-you gifts for donors.

Update: A little more detail from ABC News' Blotter, including more money spent -- their report has $63,000 spent on the books, along with $8,000 on bookmarks and $20,000 to Palin's publisher, apparently to cover the cost of sending a photographer and another aide on her book tour.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/02/01/palin

[Kerrytravelers]

1. But she's all for using Joe Six Pack's money the right way, dontcha know. *wink* *wiggle*

Also, too, there.

[Beaverhausen]

2. Is that even legal?

[gratuitous]

4. Pretty much

Political action committees can make expenditures for just about anything they want, even hookers and booze. Well, booze for sure; hookers you have to disguise (thinly) under nomenclature like "campaign staff" or "outside consultants." However, I don't suppose Our Sarah's supporters will be real thrilled to see her spending $8,000 on bookmarks. But I'm pretty sure they'll get over it quickly, and be back panting after her in no time at all.

[shraby]

9. Doesn't she get a percentage of the sales? Many

writers do..something in the ballpark of 5% depending on their contract.

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. Buying all those books sure helped her book ratings, too.

Don't know if she gets a cut of the books sold, depends on what her contract says.
But number of books "bought" is reflected in book rankings, no matter who buys them.
Hers is # 43 on Amazon this week.
Rankings only count number, not price, btw.

[karynnj]

14. Many politicians donate theirs

For example, the Kerrys donated all profits for This Moment on Earth to 3 environmental causes - one was Second Nature, which both Kerrys and others started to get sustainability taught in colleges in various courses, and a Cape Cod based institute that researched whether environmental toxins led to the high breast cancer rate and one other that I forget.

[karynnj]

13. They might think that getting more of the book out would be the

best thing to push Palin's numbers up. How many bookmarks can you get manufactured for $8000?

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Sarah PAC could've saved some bucks if they bought copies from Newsmax.

What was the last quote: $4.99 apiece?

[Lasher]

5. She didn't want to save money.

She wanted to launder it.

[StopTheNeoCons]

6. +1

[chat_noir]

7. more Palin PAC money

Meanwhile, Palin has cut checks to more than a dozen candidates, including Reps. Tom Rooney (R-FL), Jean Schmidt (R-OH), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). Palin also gave money to Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK), John Thune (R-SD), Richard Burr (R-NC), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Jim DeMint (R-SC).

Palin's PAC contributed the maximum allowable to accountant Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who ran against more liberal GOPer Dede Scozzafava in NY-23. After Palin's donation, Hoffman received a flood of national money and conservative attention.

On Monday, ophthalmologist/Rep. Ron Paul son Rand Paul (R), a candidate for Sen. Jim Bunning's (R) open seat, said Palin had contributed to his campaign.

http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2010/02/palin_pac_spent.php

[Lasher]

8. What a tangled web we weave.

Tea Party Convention loses speakers, steam

The convention had attracted several sponsorships from Tea Party affiliate groups.

But other tea partiers have openly balked at the $550 ticket price and $100,000 fee being paid to Palin for the keynote address, saying the high prices are contrary to the movement's grass-roots image and preclude many activists from attending.

Palin told FOX News Thursday that she still intends on appearing and that speaker's fee she receives will "go right back into the cause" through future donations to candidates and events.

"You betcha I'm going to be there," Palin said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35126561/ns/politics-more_politics

Sarah's cause, of course, is enriching herself at every opportunity.

[karynnj]

15. Interesting - she COULD have said that she was waiving the fee to contribute to the cause

What a phony!

[Lasher]

17. Right, she could have simply said she was waiving the fee, period.

But she didn't, she just wanted to convey such an impression - all the time thinking about her laundroPAC. I remember Cheney said that all Halliburton income received while serving as VP would go to charity, so there could be no question about any conflict of interest. Think about it.

Any time a politician donates money to a PAC so they won't look dirty, there's a good chance this is what's going on.

[sufrommich]

11. I was just going to post this. Hilarious! nt

[katandmoon]

12. Here's some more fascinating info - turns out SarahPAC pays some of the rabble-rousers

who founded a rabid Sarah Palin fan site to write her Facebook messages!

It was always obvious that those Facebook posts, as ignorant and arrogant as they were, were too articulate to have come from Palin's own keyboard.

http://palingates.blogspot.com/2010/02/rebecca-mansour-sarah-palins-secret.html

[Missy Vixen]

16. Here's a few facts about the publishing industry

1. Palin wasn't paying anywhere near full price for the copies of her books. As a romance author, I know how much other authors pay their publishers to purchase copies of their own books for giveaways, etcetera. I should also mention that Palin most likely also received "ARCs" (author review copies) and probably also got a certain number of freebies from the publisher as well.

One can attain the NYT list with as little as 15,000 books sold on one day.

You do the math.

2. She went to the wrong place for her bookmarks. Then again, I'm sure she was much less interested in getting a good price; it was someone else's money.

:rofl:

I should also mention that the local Costco can't give that book away now...